DC announces Watchmen prequels

Before Watchmen series arrives this summer

The trend for sequels, prequels and reboots seems to be spreading beyond the medium of cinema, with DC comics revealing the first official cover for Before Watchmen , a new strand of spin-off comics designed to fill in the gaps of the original Watchmen story.

“Essentially, we’re looking at old characters through new eyes,” creator Len Wein told Wired . “What we’re doing is filling in a lot of the blank spaces in a story that has already, to some degree, been told.”

“There were still a lot of gaps in the histories of Watchmen 's characters,” he continues, “and events only mentioned in passing or touched on briefly in the original story. We’re filling in those gaps in the most creative and inventive ways we can.”

Wein will write the Ozymandias series (one of several character-specific mini-series to be released), the cover of which can be seen below. However, original creator and comic-book legend Alan Moore will not be involved at all, having turned down DC’s overtures to write the prequel series. Moore confirmed that the series had been offered back to him if he “would agree to some dopey prequels and sequels.”

What this new development means is that we will almost certainly be treated to a Watchmen prequel movie, with DC likely having factored a film adaptation into their plans to reboot the franchise.

The new comics are set to arrive this summer… we wouldn’t be surprised to hear talk of a new movie by Christmas!